Putting the Olympic site to good use?

As part of the Olympic Park Legacy Company’s (OPLC) soft-marketing test of possible future uses for the press and broadcast centres, Acer Snowmec has lodged an expression of interest to deliver “snow in the city” at the media centre on the Olympic Park in East London.

The proposed scheme, tipped as Europe’s biggest indoor snow resort, would include a 306,800 sq ft snow sports and leisure complex, and various other amenities.

Acer Snowmec managing director Malcolm Clulow said the £40 million snow-in-the-city plan for the £330million Olympics broadcast and media centre is for a large area incorporating five artificial indoor ski slopes.

One ski run would have a pitch of 35 degrees with sharp turns to test more capable skiers, while others would include a snow park with super pipe, rails, kickers and tricks for skiers and boarders, a cross-country course and boarder and skier-cross courses.

Housing 20,000 print and broadcast journalists for the Games and with the same floorspace as a Canary Wharf skyscraper, the Olympic media centre was intended to be transformed into a hi-tech centre for new jobs. Ministers rejected the option of erecting a portable structure, opting instead to pump in an extra £100million to create a home for new businesses. But legacy chiefs said no major broadcaster or media company showed any interest in becoming an anchor tenant, raising the prospect that it could be demolished.

Concerned were raised last week about how this proposal would provide the jobs after 2012. But a spokesman for the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) told the Hackney Gazette it was “perfectly legitimate” for Acer Snowmec to make an expression on interest and that formal bids from some of the 45 hopefuls would follow later this year.

Acer Snowmec provides the snow-making technology for all the UK’s indoor slopes, with the exception of the Tamworth SnowDome, which uses a system by Prosnow.